Monument record MDO3963 - Lynchets on St Thomas's Hill, Hilton

Strip lynchets, part of the medieval open field system. A three-field system existed at Hilton in the fourteenth century but the date of enclosure is unknown. Narrow contour strip lynchets curve around the hill, following the contour.

(Centred at ST 79300260) Medieval strip cultivation running into a Celtic field system. <1>

Centred at ST 79270252. The field system, medieval or earlier, cannot be traced in the area suggested, but S of the road, in the parkland, there are fragmentary EW. scarps which may be medieval strip lynchets. These are grass covered, but poorly defined. <2>

These strip lynchets are part of a large field system (see ST 70 SE 3). <3>

<1> RCHM Mss file (Unpublished document). SWX2467.

<2> Quinnell, N V, Various, Field Investigators Comments NVQ, F1 NVQ 27-AUG-55 (Unpublished document). SDO11903.

<3> Graty, D J, Field Investigators Comments DJG, R2 DJG 20-AUG-84 (Unpublished document). SDO17664.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 113 (Monograph). SDO146.

‘(29) CULTIVATION REMAINS: (a) A three-field system existed at Hilton in the 14th century (H. L. Gray, English Field Systems, 1915, appx. II, 461) but the date of enclosure is unknown. Strip lynchets of these fields cover about 60 acres around the village. … On Thomas's Hill (793026) a series of narrow contour strip lynchets, in part cut by the Hilton-Milton Abbas road, curves E. round the spur and runs into and over 'Celtic' fields (see Group 52, p. 337).'

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 201877 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 22 2025 5:06PM